by Sienna Aylen
On Emma’s right, sat Ceila and Aslynn. Ceila, with her midnight hair swept up in a bun, didn’t speak a word, her face set in stone. Next to her, Aslynn looked almost ethereal with her pale skin and white-gold hair that cascaded to her waist in riotous curls.
To her left were Rachelle and Gwendolyn, the quietest in the group. Blonde hair with interwoven vines and flowers accentuated Rachelle’s lithe form. Gwendolyn, on the other hand, had her nose stuck in a book, hair pulled back in a severe ponytail.
Sitting opposite, across the fire, were Esmeralda and Contessa. Flame-red hair matched Esmeralda’s personality to a tee. Tessa was similar in nature. Dubbed ‘the troublemakers’ as teenagers, they’d lived up to the name ever since. Though with time, even their antics had dulled considerably.
The oldest, Jade and Isabella, stood off to the side and kept watch, always observant. Isabella’s pale blue eyes were sharp, scanning the surrounding forest. White hair and violet eyes marked their eldest sister, Jade, as did the violet strands of color that swirled and trailed down the sides of her face, disappearing into the collar of her jacket.
Out of all the sisters, she was the one Emma feared for the most. Dark circles permanently marked the shadows of her eyes and she had lost weight. They all had, but Jade looked as if a stiff wind would knock her over. Everyone worried she would be the first one to succumb to the need for eternal rest.
“You know you’re getting old when three hundred years doesn’t seem like that long anymore.” Rachelle smiled despondently at Esmeralda.
Affronted, Esmeralda put her hand to her chest. “Are you calling me old? I am two thousand years young, thank you very much. I think Bella might be showing a gray hair or two over there, though.”
Emma grinned. No matter how old they got, they were family…a bickering, estranged family on occasion, but a family nevertheless.
“Well, none of us are getting any younger, that’s for sure.” Isabella grinned while scanning the forest around them. The fog veiled the trees in an impenetrable blanket of mist and a slight move of her hand sent it rising until it was tall enough to conceal them, a vaporous cloud of anonymity.
Pushing the wire frame of her glasses up with one finger, Gwen placed her book in her lap. “Technically speaking, we are the oldest living beings on this planet, besides germs. So, I suppose that would make us old farts, in today’s terminology.”
Ceila and Aslynn both snickered half-heartedly. Jade turned back to face the group. The rest of the sisters quieted. When Jade spoke, which wasn’t very often these days, everyone listened.
“I brought you all here because we’re running out of time. I know that all of us have come to the tipping point with our gifts and we need to make it our first priority to find our Fated and the Next Generation. Compound that with the shifter disturbances of late, and we have serious problems.”
“We always have problems, what else is new? What’s happening with the shifter packs?” asked Emma. Their Fated and Next Gen were perpetual problems—she was more interested in what was happening with the shifters. Of all the species, shifters had one of the largest populations, second only to the humans. A problem with the shifters would have global repercussions if not dealt with immediately. Their packs, clans and tribes spanned the planet. They ranged from predator packs to more docile species. The three dominant species were bears, wolves and the cats.
Gwen spoke into the silence, “Kidnappings, random acts of violence, territorial disputes outside the normal parameters. Each species is having its own sets of problems that fall outside the realm of coincidence and they all appear to be interconnected.” Gwen looked around at their stunned expressions. “What? You know that I read extensively.”
“Yes, but you usually read books, scrolls and digital articles. How did you find out the specifics?” Ceila asked into the silence. “I’ve had impressions from the balance, but they’re never that detailed.”
Gwen fidgeted in her seat and stared into the flickering flames. “My gift demands new information at an alarming rate. I may have felt nudges from the balance and looked into it…by hacking into all their digital files. They need to beef up their security and firewalls. It really wasn’t that hard to bypass them.”
Tessa raised her hand, guilt written across her face. “All my recent visions have been about shifters, too.”
“What have you seen?” asked Isabella.
Emma saw Tessa’s stricken face and knew she wasn’t going to like the answer.
Taking a deep breath, Tessa let it all out in a rush. “Death, war, disease and if we don’t stop it… The demise of the entire shifter population.”
Shit. Just when Emma had thought they would be able to start taking it easier, the whole world had to go to pot. Typical.
Calling her sisters workaholics would be an understatement. Just once it would be nice to have a break, a vacation. A life. Alas, it was rather impossible when the whole planet depended on you for supervision. Like teething toddlers, the species couldn’t be left unattended for even a minute without them getting into trouble.
Jade walked into the center of the circle. Tucking her gloved hands into the pockets of her jacket, she met each of their gazes squarely. “As of now, your first priority will be finding your Fated and Next Gen. We’ve put it off for too long and if we don’t find them now, we never will. As for the shifter problems, we’ll split into three groups, each taking a shifter species here in the Americas.”
Isabella turned with wide eyes to Jade. “But that leaves Europe, Africa and Asia without any protection! We’ve never left an entire continent without one of us there to keep watch.”
Jade shrugged. “I have posts set up and minds everywhere. I’ll take over the task of watching the east while we deal with the shifters. Things seem calm on that side of the world, for the moment, anyway, but if it’s needed, you can teleport me there, Bella.” Murmurs of protest went up among the group.
Esmeralda stood up, placing her hands on her hips. “You can’t take on half of the world by yourself, Jade.”
“What about your Fated?” added Ceila.
Rachelle’s quiet voice entered the melee, “We can all help watch over Europe and the rest of the east. You shouldn’t burden yourself.”
“There is a ninety-seven percent chance you’ll burn out within the next three years if you take on that much territory,” Gwen stated.
Jade let out a soft sigh, bringing silence to the group. “Enough. I have stated what will happen, and that’s my final word on the subject.”
Emma was the first to reply, “If that’s what you want, Jade, then so be it. What are our assignments?”
“Emma, I have a transport set up for you, Tessa and Gwen. Tomorrow morning, you’ll meet with a driver who will take you north to the main bear compound on the border of the US and Canada. Damien Ryder, the Alpha, will be expecting you.
“Ceila, Aslynn, Esmeralda, the wolves are having problems with an unknown disease. You’ll leave in the morning to go east, to the Appalachians. Their Alpha, Lex Tremaine, will be ready when you arrive. Rachelle and Isabella, you both will board a flight straight to South America. The cats don’t know about our arrival yet. I have not had contact with them, so you need to establish that when you arrive. I’ll meet the both of you there as soon as I’m able. I want frequent updates from everyone.”
“Done and done. Why can’t we ever get an easy job, Jade, like sitting on a beach for a week and do some whale watching? I could take Tessa with me and we’d have one hell of a time,” quipped Esmeralda.
The tiniest of grins upturned Jade’s mouth. “Because I know you. You’d get bored and try to use the whales to take over the world.”
Esmeralda’s innocent look was ruined by the smirk she couldn’t control. “Who, me? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Rachelle’s pale hair swung over her shoulder as she stood up, flowering vines intertwined in the long strands. Her lilting laugh drifted through the clearing. “You�
��d unbalance the ecosystem with your army of whales and then I’d have to come in and save you.”
Jade shook her head at their banter. “The assignments I’m sending you on have a chance to be lengthy ones. I do not know how long you’ll be tasked to stay there. May I be blessed to see you all again.” With those parting words, Jade strode off into the forest, the gray mist shielding her from view.
Emma shook her head and sighed. “Is it just me or are we getting too old for this crap?”
Chapter Two
#xa0;
Raising a hand, Emma pushed back the mass of her red-gold hair that had slipped into her face. Sleep had been an elusive creature, teasing her with sweet minutes of rest before snatching it away. Stifling a yawn, she twisted the length of her hair into a loose braid.
The morning had started out with meeting their escort, a young bear named Rafe. Brown wavy hair fell just below his ears, which, combined with a charming smile and a hint of beard growth, gave him a rakish look. Like a pirate, he would have fit in quite well on a rugged, broken-down ship in the middle of the Mediterranean.
His personality, on the other hand, left much to be desired. The boy tried to be cute, really, he tried. That wide mouth of his had been chattering since the moment he’d picked them up. The only reprieve they’d had was when he stopped to take a breath. Two different transports over a five-hour period, then another hour in their current all-terrain Jeep, and Emma was having fantasies of duct-taping the kid’s mouth shut. For someone who was used to solitude and quiet, being with him was like walking into a crowded room with no escape routes.
The concrete buildings had given way to sprawling wilderness as their trip progressed. Emma turned and glanced at Tessa, wondering if she felt the same sense of ‘home’—nostalgia for what the world used to look like before modern technology took over. Back then, the world had been simpler. Greener. Less claustrophobic.
With each mile, the trees grew denser, the ground rougher and the constant buzz in Emma’s head lessened. The headache that was her loyal companion eased to a dull throb at the base of her skull. Serenity oozed from the tall ferns and willows, the forest a veritable haven for one such as her.
Here I could be at peace for my final days.
Gwendolyn shoved her glasses up her nose with one finger in a gesture reminiscent of an elderly librarian. Twisting in her seat, she looked back at Tessa and Emma. “Based on the density of the trees, I would surmise that we’re within a few miles of our final destination.”
“Thank god. I really need to pee,” Tessa mumbled, shifting in her seat. Emma winced in sympathy when they went over a large bump that brought a pained grimace to Tessa’s face.
“I could always pull over and let you squat in the woods.” Rafe smiled at Tessa in the rear-view mirror.
“Honey, I have never in my two thousand years gone pee on the side of the road and I am not going to start now,” Tessa replied in a perfect Southern-belle accent.
Emma and Gwen knew that accent meant trouble. The sweeter Tessa’s accent, the more irritated she was. Emma hid her smirk by looking out the window while Gwen cleared her throat to keep from laughing.
Rafe turned halfway around in his seat, almost running them off the narrow road. “You’re shitting me, right? I mean, I heard you guys were old, but damn!”
Three sets of eyes with brows raised pinned him to his seat. A bright flush entered his cheeks, rising from his neck all the way up to his hairline.
“But, uh, you don’t look that old, of course.”
Gwen patted his arm in an awkward show of sympathy. “You really should quit while you’re ahead.”
Waving her hand in his direction, Tessa piped up, “Darling, he should have quit three hours ago. He’s digging his grave at this point.”
Determined they would all finish the trip in one piece, and since he wouldn’t quit talking anyway, Emma decided to pump the kid for information. “Changing the subject, what’s your Alpha like? He’s the one who sent for us, I assume.”
It was surprising an Alpha would send for them without being coerced. The Council was not known for subtlety and Alphas tended to steer clear of them if they could help it. Nine times out of ten, the Council wasn’t invited to the party—they crashed it. Shifters in particular were of the opinion they could take care of things on their own. Bears were notorious for going it alone, so much so they’d only joined together as a united worldwide Clan within the last millennium. Before that, they’d had small family units, but most were loners.
As a result, their clan structure was different from the other species’. Where wolf packs and cat tribes had defined hierarchies with warriors, Alphas, Omegas and such, bears had an Alpha or Alpha pair and that was it. The rest of the structure was undefined. Instead of having jobs assigned them, each bear in the Clan picked their own. It seemed to work for them. The Clan hadn’t had any significant problems that warranted the Council’s attention until now.
Rafe met her eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Honestly, Damien can be a tight-ass on occasion, and a slave driver. Lately, he’s been really busy with the construction crew, building more cabins. Hopefully, they’ll be finished before the end of the summer. He’s not particularly excited about you guys coming, even though he sent for you. But once he sees you, I think he’ll change his mind.”
Tessa stirred in her seat, one hand twitching as if she might slap Rafe upside the head. “Do you usually get away with referring to your alpha as a tight-ass?”
Fingering his collar, Rafe pointed down the road. “The den is just around that corner.”
* * * *
Staring out of the window into the majestic forest beyond, Damien sipped his daily mug of coffee and wondered why he had agreed to the old coot’s plan. Bringing in outside help only chafed him and his bear. Never mind that the Council were exemplary at their jobs and had been doing them for the past two thousand years, or so the reports claimed. It was the principle of the thing.
He was Alpha.
In charge. Fixer of all problems.
He shouldn’t have to abdicate his responsibility to a bunch of old crones. He could just picture it, three wrinkly, gray-haired women cackling as they ran off the perpetrator with their canes. Oy.
Damien’s father had told him stories about the Council when he was a boy. In those stories they were imposing figures, larger-than-life heroes who protected the innocent. As a cub, he had been enchanted by the stories but now, as a man, he figured they were just that. Stories. Made-up tales of their exploits.
Perhaps they were completely made up, and the women he’d been crazy enough to invite to his territory were just professional swindlers cashing in on some old myths. Not that he was paying for their services. Oddly enough, they were doing the job for free. The situation had suspicious written all over it.
Their specialty, apparently, was going into a situation unnoticed and taking care of business. Living in the shadows. Like the bogey-man.
Damien rolled his eyes heavenward. What a load of crock.
There wasn’t much to be done about it since they had already been sent for and were due to arrive before lunchtime. Best-case scenario, he’d be able to handle things without any delays and send them packing within a week. If they thought they were going to waltz in and push him aside, though, they had another think coming.
They could provide peripheral help.
Just as Damien was wondering whether or not to stock up on tea and biscuits for his new ‘guests’, his brother Bleu and his cousin Hunter ambled through the front door and made their way to the kitchen.
Hunter snatched two blueberry muffins off the counter and tossed one to Bleu before turning his grin to Damien. “So, you still pouting?”
Catching the muffin in mid-air, Bleu reclined against the island with legs crossed and tapped his watch twice. “The women should be here soon, within the next half hour, if they kept their restroom breaks to a minimum. Dad said they’re professionals, so I don’t know why
you’re still so apprehensive about it.”
Damien grinned at his brother’s obsession over promptness, then turned to rinse his mug in the sink, his gaze running over the familiar paths of the faint white lines that marked both forearms. “It isn’t Dad I’m worried about. I mean, really, how much do we know about these women? They’re practically ghosts.” Facing Bleu and Hunter, Damien rested his hands on the counter on either side of him. “I just don’t like the idea of delegating this to someone we don’t personally know.”
“I’m not particularly fond of having to bring in outside help either but if it can stop another person from getting hurt, then I’m all for it. These women have been around for ages. How much trouble can a few crippled elderly women get into anyway?” asked Hunter with a shrug.
Damien knew Hunter was right, but that didn’t mean he had to be excited about it. They were coming and that was that. Curious, he asked, “Who did you send to pick them up?”
Hunter took a healthy bite of his muffin and smirked. “Rafe.”
Damien sighed. “I would ask if you’re joking, but I know you too well.”
“I figure he’ll drive our lovely houseguests nuts, or they’ll put him in his place. Either way, win-win for us.”
Damien rolled his eyes. “That boy needs to grow up, sooner rather than later. Otherwise before he knows it, he’ll be our age and mate-less. Granted, it’ll be a miracle if he can ever find a woman to put up with him, but that’s beside the point. The point is that with all these problems cropping up one after another we’ll be lucky if we have the time to start searching for our own mates before the end of the century.”
Hunter sniggered. “Thirty-five and you’re itching to pop out those grandbabies that Mom is always bugging us about? Good luck, man.”
“I’m not ready for kids just yet, but having a mate in my bed every night, someone to come home to… I’m ready for that,” Damien responded.